ALBANY – Tune in Sunday, Sept. 3, just a shade past 1 p.m. That is when Ron Dayne reveals himself. On the field, that is.

Everything that leads up to that moment, his true NFL debut with the Giants, has the look and feel of meaning-

less prologue. Dayne is not going to say much of anything that gives off clues about him. Check that. Perhaps there is much to be learned by what he does not say.

What he doesn’t say is a whole lot.

“If I don’t know you,” he said yesterday, “there’s no point in me talking to you.”

The Heisman Trophy winner and college football’s rushing king arrived with the reputation for letting his mighty game do the talking, and he’s lived up to the advance billing. As a first-round draft pick at a marquee position, there’s great demand for Dayne, and he’s been obliging in a non-obliging sort of way. Requests for interviews are granted and invariably are brief exchanges, with wordy questions followed by monotone, flat answers. Mun-Dayne, you might say. Soon enough, the session is complete, with not a great deal of satisfaction for either party.

Dayne has mostly been seen and not heard, which is fine with the Giants, as long as what they see is the powerhouse runner they need to complete their offensive puzzle. In two pre-season games, Dayne has provided glimpses, but no proof. He’s rushed 34 times for 114 yards, which is not quite the average of four yards per carry the Giants prefer. On his longest run, a 16-yard gallop against the Jaguars, Dayne cut to his left and charged through the defense, leaving three would-be tacklers grabbing at his thickly-muscled legs.

Still, everything about Dayne suggests no one will know for sure about him until the games start to count. His great strength is his abilty to wear down an opponent, and that does not happen in summertime games. He admits he has not yet mastered the playbook and does seem to be waiting for the regular season to run his hardest. He was the ultimate “game player” at Wisconsin, someone who rarely inspired awe during the week but then erupted on Saturdays.

It could be Dayne is mindful of his stature and the fact he’s a rookie and is deliberately keeping quiet. Or it could be he doesn’t enjoy dealing with the media. Either way, he has made it clear he wants to allow what he does on the field serve as the window into himself.

“People get to see you by doing interviews, get to see how you are, so usually I don’t mind doing interviews, but some of the questions, if you saw the game you already know the answer,” Dayne said. “I’m not trying to impress people, I play for a team, and that’s who I’m trying to impress.”

Many of Dayne’s teammates say he’s also quiet around them. Pete Monty was a senior linebacker at Wisconsin when Dayne was a freshman sensation, and Monty recalls the Dayne he met four years ago is the same Dayne he’s been reunited with this season.

“That’s something that’s one of his strongest qualities, I think,” Monty said. “I think if you get the right person to write the story about a person like that, people are really going to respect his character and the way he carries himself. That’s something I got to say, Ron has done a great job handling all the success he’s had. He hasn’t changed one bit since I’ve known him.”

Playing in Madison, Wis., Dayne accepted that there was growing attention directed his way. As a senior chasing the Heisman and the NCAA rushing record, he spoke to the media only on Mondays. “Then just chill for the rest of the week,” he said. He also spoke after games.

Following the 16-13 loss to the Jaguars, Dayne did not appear to be interested in talking much, even though he was fairly effective (17-66) in his second game. “Ain’t nothing to really talk about after we lost,” he explained.

There was speculation that Dayne grew upset with the negative reporting of his training camp routine of falling far behind in conditioning sprints. He often finishes last in those drills, but he says that’s the way it’s always been and it doesn’t bother him.

“I know I’m probably going to be in the back of all the sprints, no matter what type of shape I’m in,” Dayne said. “I guess that’s the way I am. I’m not really a distance runner. I know its doing me good by running it but I don’t think I’ll ever be out in the front.”

The adjustment to the NFL, he says, is a matter of identifying and running through the first hole, rather than searching for an even bigger hole. As for his heavy workload (34 carries) in the first two games, no big deal.

“That’s why they brought me here, to run the ball, it doesn’t bother me when they give me the ball that many times,” Dayne said. “I probably got the most carries out of any running back in the league. It doesn’t matter. I came here to run the ball so I’m glad they let me run it.”